Random shadow

The theory discussed by Marcus Chown that randomness generates everything (26 February, p 25) is nothing but a downgraded version of the Pythagorean "everything is a number" approach.

Randomness is just another buzzword which neither saves us from the infinite regression paradox, nor resolves the "why-there-is-something-rather-than-nothing" ultimate question. A better bet is to appeal to the distribution of prime numbers. Though the pattern of primes looks random, "in reality" it is fully fixed. Its inexhaustible infinitude was (and still is) a source of inspiration for many generations of philosophers and mathematicians.

Perhaps "randomness" is just a mere shadow of this pattern on the walls of the Plato's cave we all inhabit.

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